Chapter 7
"Log sixty-four. Time reference – three weeks and one day following the distortion incident. The past three log times have been missed due to a combination of cleanup and new findings. Interestingly, these new developments, while unrelated to the incident, still hold significant scientific weight. Having been to the Ascension wing at Grissom Academy myself, I am well aware of an interesting, yet subdued phenomena among the biotics. Similar to the element zero in drive cores, human biotics must discharge some amount of electrical buildup as they perform tasks with biotics. It usually comes in the form of a small shock when touching grounded objects or people, as no one can go for long without discharging and as such cannot build up a significant charge to do any damage.
"What we've been discovering over the course of this project is that our subjects do not exhibit this phenomena. While this on the surface may seem an inconsequential finding, the reality is a bit more interesting, if not surprising. After a short bit of research, I found that in no point during their lives do asari ever experience biotic related electrical buildup. At the risk of being scientifically inaccurate, I am going to make the assumption that the static buildup that typical human biotics experience is directly related to the artificially amplified electrical nervous system impulses. It seems chemically generated synapses do not agitate the element zero nodules in the same way that mechanically generated ones do. This opens up an entirely new area of element zero research, but such comes after the project at hand. At the very least I am glad we, the staff, do not have to endure electrical discharges every time we handle the children. McRoilie out."
Kevin closed the audio log and threw in an appropriate description. This particular log actually had information he had been seeking, mostly as to why he never experienced the static shock like most his friends at the Ascenion Project did. It also pointed something out to him. Any biotic friends he had back then who never had to deal with that issue must have been from the same project. It was obvious from the logs that this project was the first time anything relating to natural biotics had ever been attempted, so it was pretty safe to assume he could have personally known other kids from the project.
He laid back in the chair and stretched. They were now about three and a half days into their long FTL trip. The whole thing was going pretty smooth so far. Each discharge stop was devoid of events, much like the rest of the voyage. He and Ralik hadn't said much to each other outside of short conversations during the core discharge stops and a couple meals they just happened to have together. Kevin was straight up bored, but he considered this a good thing. The less things we wrong, the more it was likely he could get through the relay, make some groundbreaking discoveries and get back for his cash. Perhaps he could even consider this an easy job. With the absurd amount of money Tarsil offered him, he could easily lay back for a few months and do nothing.
For the first time in his life, he actually wanted to hit up Afterlife and have a solid set of hours grinding up against his favorite asari dance partner rather than having it just happen. What a weird urge to have. He thought about going over to Club Kellius and putting on some dance music at high volumes to curb these wants, but without anybody else in the room it would be empty and unsatisfying. Why was he so anxious to go out and do something? All the entertainment features he could ever want were aboard this ship, but it just didn't fill the void the same way that physical freedom did. It was too bad there wasn't a gym aboard the ship. He could use a good workout.
Kevin felt the ship come out of FTL. They must have been stopping for their next discharge site. Kevin saw this as a chance to move a bit and he shut the terminal down once again. This time he was headed for the bridge.
Upon arrival at the front of the ship, he found Ralik setting the ship up for a core discharge. Without saying a word, he stepped around one of the empty chairs and peered out the viewports. The star they now orbited was a deep blue, and the planet they stopped above was a starkly contrasting orange and red. The edge of the planet towards the star looked like a fluorescent lavender. Pretty. Stepping back, he leaned on one of the consoles and looked at Ralik. Ralik was concentrating on the placement of the ship, but that could do nothing to hide the new burn mark that scarred the lower left side of his face.
"Ralik, what did you do?"
"What?" Ralik asked, hardly looking up from the controls. "Oh, I suppose you mean this." Ralik tapped the left side of his face with an armored finger.
"Yup, that'd be it," Kevin confirmed, folding his arms.
"A small run-in with an electrical discharge on one of the pieces of equipment I was setting up earlier today. I think the power management systems on it were dead on arrival. After connecting it to a power source, electricity arced from the device to my. . . Face."
"Ouch. Well, good to see you didn't get thrown into the drive core. This trip is boring enough as is."
"You really should work on your ability to console, Kevin. It lacks horribly. At least with this I can still make breeding arrangements. You, my friend, had no chance from birth."
Kevin was all set up to deliver a considerable blow to Ralik's ego, but unfortunately that moment never presented itself. In place of his counter was a beeping that sounded a bit too much like an alarm to go unnoticed. Ralik stopped what he was doing and he tapped a few things on the haptic interface to figure out what was going on. Kevin leaned in to see.
"It looks like. . . A broadcasted signal." Ralik tilted his head in astonishment.
"Way out here in the middle of nowhere? In geth space? There's no way. A trap maybe?"
"It is possible, but as you said, I really don't see why anyone for any reason would be way out here in geth space. Why would the geth set up a snare out here?"
"Unless someone's heading in the same direction as us. Well, what does it say?" Kevin asked, anxious to at least hear the message. Ralik tapped a bit more and the message began to play.
Unfortunately, it was distorted immensely. All it contained were garbled sounds mixed with gratuitous amounts of white noise.
"Terra," Kevin started, "can you clean this message up at all?"
"Attempting audio recovery. Please stand by." There was a silence of a whole two seconds.
"Unfortunately, the message could not be reconstructed. There is too much audio degradation. However, it appears that this signal was broadcasted on current distress call channels."
"Can a point of origin be established?" Ralik asked, driving for more information.
"A point of origin cannot be accurately determined due to the same interference that caused the signal degradation. However, the direction of broadcast and signal strength suggests that it may have come from within this solar system."
Kevin immediately brought up the local system map on the terminal in front of the bridge chair to the left of the one Ralik sat in.
"According to our scans of the system, there's only one other planet orbiting this star. It's on the far side. I guess that could explain the degradation. It had to pass right by the star to get to us."
Another alarm started going off. This one had a whole different level of urgency to it.
"Terra?" Kevin asked, not waiting to find out via terminal.
"Alert: Several vessels have dropped out of FTL within this solar system. They match current geth dropship-class ship profiles."
"Ah crap," Kevin calmly said, shaking his head. "And just when things were going so well. Ralik, we better move."
"Already on it," Ralik stated as the ship began to sink into the opaque atmosphere of the planet. "The atmosphere of this planet absorbs and diffuses signals. If we lower in we'll be blind, but we won't catch the attention of the geth."
The viewports became obscured by a swirling menagerie of colored gases partnered by the occasional flash of odd-colored lightning from the discharging core. The light of the nearby sun could still be visible, but its blue hue was long gone.
"Why would the geth be sending dropship-class ships out here?" Kevin wondered aloud. "Those aren't regular patrol or mining vessels."
"I think we know why," Ralik solemnly said, looking to Kevin.
"You've got to be kidding me. So that distress call is real. My brain tells me to just pick up and leave. It's best not to get involved with the geth on their turf. Even still, we don't know who's over there."
"Could simply be pirates or slavers looking to get outside of the range of prying eyes. Either way, the drive is just about fully discharged, so we can move in a minute."
Kevin thought about it for that entire minute. There was a considerable amount of risk in finding out more. When the core was all set, Ralik looked up to him to see what his decision was.
"Let's at least maneuver around the far side to we can get a clear listen to that distress call. I want to hear who's over there."
Ralik sighed. "Alright Kevin. It was your call. I will be keeping my distance, though."
"Fair enough. Let's move."
Ralik turned his attention back to the plethora of glowing controls before him and he began to set in a course for an area away from both planets where they should be able to pick up the signal with better clarity. They briefly moved to FTL to reach said are in a minimal amount of time. There they conducted and all-stop and drifted while they received the distress call.
"This is Captain Siri'Kortel of the quarian ship Forverna. We have been downed by the geth on an unknown planet orbiting the star L5288 beyond the Dholen solar system just outside the edges of the Far Rim star system. We need immediate assistance before the geth return. If anyone is out there. . . Please help!"
At that point the message began to repeat.
"Quarians?" Kevin was taken aback at such a find. "What are they doing way out here?"
"Will you stop asking such rhetorical questions?" Ralik jabbed. "Shall we go now? It's only another six days to the Melkanis relay."
"I'll drive," Kevin said, much to Ralik's relief.
"All yours. I was getting sick of that seat anyways." Ralik stood from his seat and stepped back to take the position of over-the-shoulder observer while Kevin sat down.
Much to Ralik's dismay, however, they did not head away from the system via FTL. Instead, Kevin was bee-lining it for the planet were the distress call was coming from.
"Uhh, Kevin? What are you doing?"
"You heard the distress call, Ralik. They need help. If the geth are still sending dropships in, then they must still be fighting to stay alive."
"We're on the verge of making a monumental discovery, and you want to play hero against the geth for a bunch of vagrants? I cannot believe I let you take that seat!"
"What can I say? I have a soft spot for quarians. Sit down before you hurt yourself."
Ralik was more than upset. He was worried. "Can't we just wish them well and go? There is too much risk here."
"Would your old STG unit just ignore an entire ship of quarians about to meet a slow demise due to the geth?" Kevin asked, trying to hit a place in Ralik that would make him understand.
"If it went against mission parameters, yes. One ship of scavengers is hardly high priority."
"Look, if I go planetside by myself, you can hang here and monitor the situation. If I die or can't make it back to the ship, then you can take it and leave to go complete your almighty mission. I know you aren't that heartless, Ralik. Especially after risking your life to help Illium police."
Frustrated, Ralik grumbled and sat down to Kevin's right. Whether it was that Kevin finally hit that spot or it was that Ralik simply gave up, Kevin didn't know. Either way, they were now on their way to an unknown, whitewashed planet with one black band in its otherwise clear atmosphere.
"We'll approach from the night side," Kevin stated. "Hopefully that's not where the geth are congregating. At least by then we'll get a better scan of what's going on, since we'll be out of the sun. Seems like its radiation is messing with some sensors. Guess that's why the message was so garbled before."
Ralik no longer had any input. He resigned to letting himself cool down before bringing any advice to this situation. Be that as it may, it seemed to him Kevin's strategy, however shallow, was sound at this point. When they fell into the shadow of the planet, the interference had largely vanished. Having a better scan of the planet, Kevin could tell that there was little to be scanned. It was more or less barren, and had a thin atmosphere of nitrogen. Most scans of the surface came back blank, probably due to the fact that the surface was constantly saturated by the radiation the local star had put out. Even still there was no debris, dead bodies, geth or anything of note on this half, so whatever was left had to be on the day side. Despite this, the scans revealed that the small black cloudy band around the equator was in fact smoke that had gotten caught in a mid-atmosphere jet stream of sorts. If they found the source, they would probably found the quarians – and the geth.
Ralik checked one of the haptic screens on the far left of the bridge. "Gravity reads about one point zero nine that of the citadel's. Should be safe to land."
"We're going in, fast and low," Kevin announced. "We'll do a fly-by search for the source of the smoke, following that band there."
"Why do a low altitude search when we can just pick out the source from the day side?" Ralik asked.
"Because," Kevin confidently started, "most of our chances of our getting out of this alive rest on keeping the geth ignorant of our presence. You saw the interference the star caused. Staying low to the surface might help us evade scans a bit longer, especially if the radiation is bathing the ship too."
"My concern rests with the quarians, believe it or not. This will take longer, and who knows how long they might be able to hold off the geth."
"If they can survive long enough to set up a distress beacon, then they likely can survive a few extra minutes."
Just at that point, the Kellius entered the atmosphere of the planet. The ship shuttered as it split the foreign air, but was otherwise unaffected. They decreased in speed as they approached the surface to level out. As soon as they were parallel to the unlit barren ground, they increased speed to begin the search. Not more than a minute later, they entered into the day lit side. Mountains, hills and what appeared to be the pointed blades of massive double edged swords jutting up from the surface flew by below them in a blur. There also seemed to be sparse clusters of some sort of vegetation. They looked like trees, but they didn't flow, or at least, the leaves were as stiff as bone. The so called leaves were also a pastey white like the rest of the surface.
"Alright Ralik, here's the deal. When we land, I'm going to go on foot to try and make contact with the quarians. If all goes well, we'll bring them aboard and get out of here before the geth come back to say hi. If not. . . Well, I'll improvise."
"And me?" Ralik questioned.
"Stick to the plan," Kevin answered. "This ship needs to be ready for dust off at a moment's notice. If something goes wrong. . ."
Kevin removed his view from the piloting console for just a moment to look Ralik in the eye. It was clear to Kevin that Ralik was attempting to ready himself mentally. It was a small mission, but things could easily go very wrong.
"You need to get whoever makes it back, out. Whether none of us do or all of us. Primary objective is getting the Kellius out in one piece, next comes rescue."
"Understood," Ralik confirmed. "I fully expect the geth will start at us sooner or later, though."
"Right, and we haven't got a whole lot in terms of firepower. Just get out of orbit and hit FTL."
"Remind me again why we're risking our necks for a bunch of quarians?"
Kevin couldn't help but let a smile cross his features. "Just focus on the Kellius, Ralik. I'll worry about the quarians."
"You aren't earning points in the empathy department," Ralik calmly said.
Right on cue, the pillar of smoke denoting the source appeared on the horizon behind some small mountains and tall hills. Kevin now needed to find a place to land that might best cover the ship from view or scans. Kevin had to revert to staring out the viewports for this task, as the surface and supposed vegetation did not properly show up on his console, making finding a level spot difficult.
"There!" Ralik shouted, pointing to a small valley between sharp mountains.
The spot looked big enough for the Kellius to lower into, and the valley seemed to head right down to where the smoke was coming from. Kevin initiated the surface landing sequence and set the ship to hover just above the level valley so he could get a good look at it before landing.
Unfortunately, what Kevin and Ralik discovered was that the valley was not quite flat. It was loaded with a grove of the stiff tree-like vegetation. Fortunately, there was a spot near the rear of the Kellius that lacked the trunks to these trees, and was just covered by the branches and outcroppings. Additionally, the semi-open shape was nearly perfect for the Kellius to make it through. Unfortunately, the shape wasn't as perfect as Kevin would like, and it made landing a nail-biting challenge. Fortunately, the trees did indeed bend as the Kellius pushed passed the ones around the outside of the opening. Kevin likened them to thick rubber trees rather than bone stiff ones. Unfortunately, there was a violent and loud crunch as something crumpled underneath the weight of the Kellius. Ralik and Kevin winced at each other after hearing that, hoping there were no punctures in the hull as a result. Finally, they both then let go of a breath they didn't even know they had been holding during the tense landing.
"Whatever that was, it didn't sound good," Kevin noted as he got up from his seat. "I'm going to suit up. I'll let you know when to lower the ramp."
"Well done," Ralik shouted after Kevin. "We are not dead after all. The rest of the mission should be simple after watching you handle that!"
There was no time for a reply, however. Kevin had more important things to get around to than shutting Ralik down. Again. Ralik sat down at one of the chairs in the bridge to bring up some scans and monitors. It seemed even during a mission like this, Ralik's researcher tenancies could not be curbed. Meanwhile, Kevin sprinted with all haste down the length of the ship to get to his room. Once there, he got into his hardsuit and set the helmet on his head. Once the airtight seal was confirmed with a classic hiss, he clipped his pistol onto his belt. Only now did he recall that he had forgotten to mod his pistol on the workbench Ralik had set up in engineering. Without the phasic mod he bought on Illium, he would be at a serious disadvantage if he ever came up against geth infantry. Geth tended to have stronger than average kinetic barriers, and his premium unmodded pistol would need to make at least three direct hits before a geth was actually exposed.
Kevin turned around in his room and located his knife. He tied the holster to his waist so that the knife was behind him and the handle stuck out sideways to the right. This way he could easily grab it and slice in one fluid motion if ever found that he needed it. In one last move before he left, he gathered an arm-mounted set of pockets so he could bring plenty of extra thermal clips. He knew he would need them before he got back. With everything set, he headed out of his room and down into the cargo hold.
"Alright, Ralik," Kevin called over the suit's internal radio. "Lower the ramp."
"Already? Well well, speedy aren't we? Should be lowering now."
Kevin didn't even wait for the ramp to lower completely and was lunging off the edge by the time it had started to level out. He landed and rolled forward to absorb the impact from the slightly higher than usual gravity of the planet. He pulled his pistol from its holster after he straightened back up and looked around. To his surprise, he found a lot more than rocks and trees.
The entire area within the small valley looked as though it had been converted into a refugee camp. Large metal cargo crates were spread about, clustered into groups among salvaged pieces of whatever ship they landed on. To his far left was the apparent living area where sealed food rations, a few open crates and all manner of makeshift bedding could be found under a variety of thrown together tents. To his far right was a number of tables made of welded pieces of scrap metal. From what Kevin could see, they were used for everything ranging from eating to equipment repair to drawing up plans. Straight ahead in the middle of the camp was several opened crates turned on their side. He could barely make out the outlines of various weapons jutting through the open side. It was whatever they could salvage for usable weapons. An armory of sorts. The only thing missing from the campsite was quarians.
Kevin looked behind him back towards the Kellius to see just what it was they landed on. He saw metal scraps under one of the landing legs, though he couldn't quite confirm what they were beforehand. He made the guess that they landed on a cluster of crates. That was good news. Crates wouldn't have been able to puncture the hull.
Kevin then looked up towards the bridge viewports and gave Ralik a brief salute. "Looks like we landed on their campsite, Ralik."
"Yes, I'm looking at that now. Good thing we landed here and not on some hapless survivors. What was that noise? Can you see what we hit?"
"Looks like we landed on some crates. No biggie. I'm heading to the other end of the valley. Looks like there's a way down to the source of the smoke there."
"Try not to get shot in the face."
"Why Ralik, I'm touched."
"Tick tock, Kevin."
Kevin shook his head and looked above the Kellius. The trees they pushed through had since sprung back and covered the ship with their limbs. At least this would help shield the Kellius from geth sensors. He also noticed that the colors underneath the sun-washed canopy were different. The leaves, long and thin like blades of grass, were a mix of maroon and crimson. The trunks were a greenish brown and their massive roots cracked the porous, white surface. A pleasant addition of color to this otherwise blank world.
Kevin turned back to the campsite and headed towards the armory between him and the other end of the valley. At the very least he could grab something with a higher rate of fire. As he moved, he could hear the familiar distant sound of chaos. Not just any chaos – armed chaos. There was a considerable battle going on out there somewhere, and Kevin had a feeling that was where he was just about to head. He picked up his pace, but stopped suddenly when he heard a crack come from somewhere within his vicinity. His mind had trained itself over the years to focus on a target, but following echoes was hard to do through a helmet. Nevertheless, Kevin's sharpened senses helped him focus on the sound as he slowly moved towards the armory. He also noticed that the reserve of thermal clips in the armory was alarmingly low. Either they grabbed a bunch and ran, were low to begin with, or someone else took them.
Anticipating a geth ambush, Kevin began to gather dark energy to himself for a lethal counter-attack. The intermittent sharp cracking continued as he moved, and he was finally able to zone in on where the target was; it was hidden behind one of the armory crates. The closer he got, the more he noticed sounds other than the cracking. He heard hushed grunts, heavy breathing and mumbling. Clearly this was not geth. Kevin relaxed his stance, but maintained his dark energy reserve for a barrier instead of an attack. Kevin figured that whoever was behind that crate likely thought Kevin was a geth in the same fashion that he did, and he didn't want to be shot. In order to reassure whoever it was behind the crate that he was not hostile, Kevin let the pistol dangle on his finger by the trigger guard and raised his hands up. He created a biotic barrier in front of him and waited for the 'surprise attack'. Instead, he heard a quieted voice.
"Come on. What good are all these weapons if the thermal clip slots are jammed?"
There was one last loud crack and the valley fell as silent as the distant fight would allow. A sigh of preparation was let go beyond the armory crate followed by a mere three seconds of stillness.
Then suddenly a quarian popped up, aiming an assault rifle at Kevin and using the crate both for cover and a support to steady the gun. Kevin waited for the imminent shots, but to his surprise, they never came. The heavy breathing quarian now before him, clad in an armor-covered environmental and a mix of dark orange, gold and maroon colored cloths, stared Kevin down through the sight of the assault rifle. Kevin could see his finger twitching, as if he hadn't decided what was in front of him was to be shot or not.
Kevin, with hands in the air, decided to help him with that.
"I surrender?"